What is UF2B?

We are 5 poker heads who are looking to elevate our games through discussion and sweat sessions with one another. This will be where we share our ideas and concepts, as well as report on our own individual growth. Each week, we will concentrate and study one poker concept and write an article on it. Please check back frequently and let us know your thoughts and opinions; we welcome your feedback.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Hand 2 : 7th Jan

Hand 2

Stack sizes:
Hero: $511
SB: $277.40

Pre-flop: (5 players) Hero is Button with Ts Qd
UTG calls, CO folds, Hero raises to $16, SB calls, 2 folds.


A very standard button isolation when UTG limps in.


Flop: 8h 3d Qs ($40, 2 players)
SB bets $8, Hero raises to $24, SB calls.

We hit top pair and get donk led into for 1/5th of the pot. We elect to make a small raise. We discussed this afterwards and decided that it's probably best to just call here. SB's range for donking is probably wide, but something like Qx, 33, 88, any pair, JT, J9, T9, air. There's not a lot of value in raising here as it's essentially turning our hand into a bluff.

We decided that raising these donk leads is probably a better if you have nothing yourself (or bottom/second pair). When you have top pair, it's probably better to call and try to see a cheap showdown (unless your hand is so strong that you want to build the pot, or the board is drawy enough that you need to protect).


Turn: 3c ($88, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks.

Standard check for pot control.


River: Kh ($88, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $56, SB folds.


We go for some thin value on the river and get a fold.




3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello,

I read all three hands. Very nice analysis. I think I play to many tables and rely on stats too much to think through a hand at the level you guys have done on these.

That is why I am probably one the poor souls you guys destroyed when passing thru the levels.

On this hand I would have raised the flop probably to about 40-42 to try to see how how much the sb liked his hand, but I like your proposed line much better.

One concept I struggle with is "turning hand into a bluff". Are there some definite things to look for in the hand dynamics to indicate you are about to do this?

DODGYKEN said...

I think that when people say you're "turning a hand into a bluff" by betting or raising, they're saying that no worse hands are going to call you (and that you don't need to protect against draws). So in this example, if we raise it's unlikely that the villian is going to call with worse hands.

I actually don't think this is a great example of turning our hand into a bluff as I think it is possible for the villian to call with a hand like 98 or 99 or something. I also think that the size of this raise probably allows him to call with weaker hands.

AppleSeed2082 said...

Hand 2.

I like the way the flop was played because that is such a weak lead and you have top pair/position.

You also find out what he leads with and take the betting lead. By re raising, you can get a better feel/read with what he is leading with on the flop for future hands.